cpadmin@publicbroadcasting.netNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Glen Weldon is a regular panelist on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. He also reviews books and movies for NPR.org and is a contributor to NPR's pop culture blog Monkey See, where he posts weekly about comics and comics culture.Over the course of his career, he has spent time as a theater critic, a science writer, an oral historian, a writing teacher, a bookstore clerk, a PR flack, a seriously terrible marine biologist and a slightly better-than-average competitive swimmer.Weldon is the author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, a cultural history of the iconic character. His fiction and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Slate, Story, McSweeney's, The Dallas Morning News, Washington City Paper and many other publications. He is the recipient of an NEA Arts Journalism Fellowship, a Ragdale Writing Fellowship and a PEW Fellowship in the Arts for Fiction.NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Glen WeldonSun, 24 Jul 2016 10:40:11 +0000Glen Weldonhttp://wutc.org
Glen WeldonComic-Con Fans Continue The Epic Battle Between Science And Fictionhttp://wutc.org/post/comic-con-fans-continue-epic-battle-between-science-and-fiction
69422 as http://wutc.orgSat, 23 Jul 2016 21:03:00 +0000Comic-Con Fans Continue The Epic Battle Between Science And FictionGlen WeldonMy wife's the reason anything gets doneShe nudges me towards promise, by degreesShe is the perfect symphony of oneOur son is her most beautiful repriseWe chase the melodies that seem to find us Until they're finished songs, and start to playWhen senseless acts of tragedy remind usThat nothing here is promised, not one day This show is proof that history remembersWe live through times when hate and fear seem strongerWe rise and fall and light from dying embersRemembrances that hope and love last longer And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is loveCannot be killed or swept asideI sing Vanessa's symphony, Eliza tells her storyNow fill the world with music, love and prideThank you so much for this.-- Lin-Manuel Miranda, accepting the best score Tony for Hamilton last night.(For the record, if you're scoring at home, that "And love is love is love ... " line is when I, and the people with whom I was watching the broadcast, lost it completely.)Yesterday was a day of horrorOn A Dark Day, The Tonys Double Down On Joy — And Pridehttp://wutc.org/post/dark-day-tonys-double-down-joy-and-pride
67828 as http://wutc.orgMon, 13 Jun 2016 14:23:00 +0000On A Dark Day, The Tonys Double Down On Joy — And PrideGlen WeldonMonkey See contributor/longtime nerd Glen Weldon recently attended San Diego Comic-Con. He kept a diary during one of the largest media events in the world.Saturday, 7:08 a.m. PT: After several minutes of technical glitches, I am taping an interview with Rachel Martin of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. I can't consult the notes I've made to prep for our talk, as the demands of NPR-quality audio means I'm holding the hotel phone up to my right ear with one hand, and my cellphone up to my left ear with the other. (When the interview's over, I will send the cellphone's recording of my voice to the NPR producer, who will splice in my answers to Rachel's questions.)I've had three hours of sleep. My energy is low, my coherence lower — I spend long minutes talking about the Eisner ceremony, and Will Eisner's dream of a world in which comics are appreciated as a medium for all kinds of storytelling, not just superheroes, and I know as I'm saying it that none of it will make it to air. I alsoA Comic-Con Diary: The Final Dayhttp://wutc.org/post/comic-con-diary-final-day
25214 as http://wutc.orgSat, 27 Jul 2013 11:03:00 +0000A Comic-Con Diary: The Final DayGlen WeldonLet's make this perfectly clear at the outset: I don't work for NPR, and what I'm about to say doesn't represent NPR. I'm but a lowly freelancer they're dumb enough to publish a bunch, and what I say now I say as me, which is to say:1. An inveterate Superman nerd, and2. A gay dude.DC Comics has hired Orson Scott Card to write the first two issues of a new digital-first Superman comic. I won't be reading it.It will be the first piece of Superman-affiliated pop culture that I will bypass in my 45 long and geeky years on this planet, and I am a man who saw Superman IV: The Quest For Peace in the damn theater. (Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor's bitchin' New Wave nephew Lenny! Superman repairing the Great Wall of China by STARING AT IT, because suddenly "spackle-vision" is evidently a thing he's got now! A banana-yellow villain in a gold-lamé codpiece!)(... OK, the codpiece was pretty rad, actually.)Why will I be giving Card's Superman a miss? Three reasons.First: Card isn't just a guy whoseMan Of Tomorrow: Superman, Orson Scott Card And Mehttp://wutc.org/post/man-tomorrow-superman-orson-scott-card-and-me-0
18176 as http://wutc.orgSun, 17 Feb 2013 18:33:00 +0000Man Of Tomorrow: Superman, Orson Scott Card And MeGlen WeldonGlen Weldon is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Monkey See.Let's make this perfectly clear at the outset: I don't work for NPR, and what I'm about to say doesn't represent NPR. I'm but a lowly freelancer they're dumb enough to publish a bunch, and what I say now I say as me, which is to say:1. An inveterate Superman nerd, and2. A gay dude.DC Comics has hired Orson Scott Card to write the first two issues of a new digital-first Superman comic. I won't be reading it.It will be the first piece of Superman-affiliated pop culture that I will bypass in my 45 long and geeky years on this planet, and I am a man who saw Superman IV: The Quest For Peace in the damn theater. (Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor's bitchin' New Wave nephew Lenny! Superman repairing the Great Wall of China by STARING AT IT, because suddenly "spackle-vision" is evidently a thing he's got now! A banana-yellow villain in a gold-lamé codpiece!)(... Okay, the codpiece was pretty rad, actually.)Why will I be giving CardMan Of Tomorrow: Superman, Orson Scott Card And Mehttp://wutc.org/post/man-tomorrow-superman-orson-scott-card-and-me
18174 as http://wutc.orgSun, 17 Feb 2013 17:45:00 +0000Man Of Tomorrow: Superman, Orson Scott Card And MeGlen WeldonIn 2012, several high-profile comics creators added landmark works to their already impressive legacies. With Building Stories, Chris Ware offered 14 volumes of comics, each with its own meticulous, anagrammatic take on despair, and stuffed them into a box. Alison Bechdel followed up her much-lauded 2006 memoir, Fun Home, with Are You My Mother?, another deep dive into the turbid waters of the parent-child bond. The result was messier and less finished, but profoundly personal — and vividly real.Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder told a gorgeous, haunting — and haunted — tale of grief and redemption. And, in God and Science, the Hernandez Brothers dosed their skillful characterizations with a hit of superheroic whimsy.These volumes are destined for many "Best Comics of 2012" lists, and rightly so. But some other, less familiar names produced outstanding works that haven't gotten the column inches they deserve. Here are just a few of the intriguing, hilarious and/or enlightening titles youGraphic Novels That Flew Under The Radar In 2012http://wutc.org/post/graphic-novels-flew-under-radar-2012
16036 as http://wutc.orgMon, 24 Dec 2012 16:31:00 +0000Graphic Novels That Flew Under The Radar In 2012